Monday, May 9, 2011

Springtime Ramps

For weeks we have been wanting to get our hands on some fresh ramps and mentioning this to Chris and Pam the other night at their party, they blessed us with a copius spring bouquet of them. Now, what were we going to do with them...

We put them in the fridge and in the morning, even through the tupperware and the fridge door, the entire kitchen was redolent with ramps. We hied ourselves off to the market hoping for peas, (no such luck) and while there I managed to convince my sweetie to make us up a batch of fresh pasta.

All of the recipes I found called for blanching ramps, but they smelled so good I decided I would saute them with a bit of butter and olive oil instead. I had some sunflower seeds that needed eating and since this was a rare vegetarian meal, decided to add them into the mix.

We had picked up some pea shoots at the market as well, so my sweetie suggested we toss thos into the mixture, did that last minute as I wanted a bit of crunch to them. A bit of fleur de sel, some white pepper, a grating of parmesan and a Saturday lunch was ready to be eaten on the azelea blessed patio. It was the first time I had actually eaten ramps, I found them grassy yet nutty and sooo fresh and full of springtime flavor. Not an onion, not a chive, not garlic, but something in between with a hint of wild in it.